Project: Valkyrie

In an age where overblown, plotless, Hollywood dribble dominates the box-office, a movie like "Project: Valkyrie" is most welcome. Its low budget is evident from the first frame, but this very aspect makes its shortcomings entirely forgivable. There is some bad sound in spots and occasionally some shaky acting, but these elements are par for the course in such films, and any sensible viewer will either ignore them or accept them as part of the fun. Steve Foland is quite enjoyable in his Bruce Campbell-inspired role, but it's the robot, Valkyrie who ultimately steals the show. There's a scene when our heroes are in dire straits, surrounded by monster Nazis and Valkyrie bursts through a door, knocking Mr. Foland's character out in the process. After a brief glance at his fallen comrade, he turns, sword out, to face the bad guys. When I saw this movie in the theater, the entire audience cheered at that point. Such moments are at the core of this movie. It does not matter if the robot is obviously a guy in a suit. We root for him anyway. Highlighting the action are the fantastic special effects by up-and-coming artist Steve Tolin. With very little money and only a few days of preparation, Mr. Tolin whipped up some delightfully disgusting monster masks and managed to fill the frame with enough blood and mangled flesh to satiate any self-respecting gore-hound. The end result of all this is a wacky soup of over-the-top characters, witty dialogue, and hilariously excessive violence that fans of the genre can delight in. "Project: Valkyrie" stands alongside such films as "The Evil Dead" and "Bad Taste" as one of the superior low-budget horror/comedies and is destined to have a loyal cult following. I, for one, am most definitely a part of that following.

This movie is a high quality indie film. It doesn't stout any technological or cinematic achievements, but it does something that many high priced Hollywood films fail at, it's fun. It is overall an extremely enjoyable picture that you'll want to watch again and again (or, at least thrice). It isn't a comedy, but there were quite a few parts where I was in tears of laughter. Steve Foland is awesome in his role, showing very well that he can be a leading man and stand on his own. The cooky robot is also quite neat, but I just wish we had more of the machine. We are able to see some interesting direction from the director, Jeff Waltrowski (Who also makes a cameo). This film seems to be a prelude to something that will be a punch to the kidney's for everyone, Jeff's next movie. Even with the downfalls I give this movie a 10.